Wrap your watch around this Time travel has long provided rich material for writers. Yet problems crop up as soon as you try to work out exactly how to shift a mere hour forward in time, let alone days or years. Consider the following scenario. Arrayed naked on the table and draped with a towel, I announce to my masseuse as my 5:00 massage session is about to begin: “You see this fancy gadget on my wrist? It’s not a smartwatch but a time-travel device. I’ve programmed it to transport me instantly to 6:00 when I press the Forward button. To be frank, I don’t know if it will work, and I don’t know what will happen if it does. You will know for certain that it did work if I disappear. In that...

How long has it been since you supported your local independent bookstore or library? I don’t care what your answer is. However long it has been is much too long. We all need to get out there and show some love for those lonely foot soldiers in the fight against illiteracy, literary apathy, and the threat of complete assimilation by the American zero-attention-span-unless-it’s-a-video-zombie-culture that is taking an ever-greater hold of our society. If you live in or intend to visit BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WASHINGTON then here is a good place to start… EAGLE HARBOR BOOK COMPANY IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “We are a full service, locally-owned and proudly independent bookstore located on Bainbridge Islan...

THE DICTIONARY OF OBSCURE SORROWS John Koening has been working for nearly a decade to put together a book of invented words to describe human emotions desperate for a name. If you are interested in browsing on your own, you can find Koening’s website for “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” here: http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com . In the meantime, I will be using this space to feature some of my favorites. Like this one… LIBEROSIS n. the desire to care less about things—to loosen your grip on your life, to stop glancing behind you every few steps, afraid that someone will snatch it from you before you reach the end zone—rather to hold your life loosely and playfully, like a volleyba...

The monetization of infraction What if the state’s manner of dealing with traffic offenses were applied to all crime, and punishment consisted solely in monetary fines instead of jail time? Let’s start with the humble parking ticket and work our way up to more serious crimes. What interests me about this particular infraction is that everyone, the most conscientious car owners included, gets ticketed sooner or later. There are many otherwise perfectly law-abiding citizens who, whether due to sheer carelessness or obsessional necessity of some sort, get ticketed quite often. There are those who accumulate so many parking tickets they give up and stop paying them altogether. Or let’s take the ...

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES: Anchorage, AK - Title Wave Books How long has it been since you supported your local independent bookstore or library? I don’t care what your answer is. However long it has been is much too long. We all need to get out there and show some love for those lonely foot soldiers in the fight against illiteracy, literary apathy, and the threat of complete assimilation by the American zero-attention-span-unless-it’s-a-video-zombie-culture that is taking an ever-greater hold of our society. If you live in or intend to visit Anchorage, Alaska, then here is a good place to start…TITLE WAVE BOOKS IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “We are the largest bookstore in Alaska, and one of the largest...

A NEW feature from Owen Thomas Fiction … John Koening has been working for nearly a decade to put together a book of invented words to describe human emotions desperate for a name. If you are interested in browsing on your own, you can find Koening’s website for “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” here: http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com . In the meantime, I will be using this space to feature some of my favorites. Like this one… AMBEDO n. a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details—raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee—briefly soaking in the experience of being aliv...

STRESSED? Curl up with a good book. Or, if you are between good books, you can always pour yourself a glass of wine and run my turtle friend (Maui 2018) on a loop until you are breathing normally again. Seriously though… go find a good book. It really works. If you are looking for some great things to read, wonderful bookstores to visit, or just to immerse yourself in quality fiction, poetry and photos, you can find Owen Thomas Fiction on Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Amazon, Google+… good grief, we’re out there. Come find us. Original link

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES: Phoenix, AZ - Changing Hands Bookstore How long has it been since you supported your local independent bookstore or library? I don’t care what your answer is. However long it has been is much too long. We all need to get out there and show some love for those lonely foot soldiers in the fight against illiteracy, literary apathy, and the threat of complete assimilation by the American zero-attention-span-unless-it’s-a-video-zombie-culture that is taking an ever-greater hold of our society. If you live in or intend to visit Phoenix, Arizona, then here is a good place to start… CHANGING HANDS BOOKSTORE IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “100,000 new and used books in a store that is a ...

AND NOW THE NEWS from Owen Thomas Fiction Dateline: San Carols Bay, Florida OTF News reporting tonight that 1960’s television star, Flipper, has filed suit in Florida State Court against the Trump Administration and Donald J. Trump, personally, for defamation and interference with prospective economic advantage. According to a statement released Friday evening from Flipper’s counsel, the suit seeks $15 million dollars in damages and an apology from the President to all dolphin species for “using the media to impugn the natural inclinations of waterborne mammals and to sully the reputation of mankind’s most highly celebrated, perpetually smiling aquatic ally.” Flipper, born Philip Schwartz in...

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES: Washington, D.C. – Kramerbooks & Afterwords Café How long has it been since you supported your local independent bookstore or library? I don’t care what your answer is. However long it has been is much too long. We all need to get out there and show some love for those lonely foot soldiers in the fight against illiteracy, literary apathy, and the threat of complete assimilation by the American zero-attention-span-unless-it’s-a-video-zombie-culture that is taking an ever-greater hold of our society. If you live in or intend to visit Washington, D.C., here is a good place to start… WHERE TO VISIT: Kramerbooks & Afterwords Café1517 Connecticut Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20...

THE DICTIONARY OF OBSCURE SORROWS A NEW feature from Owen Thomas Fiction … John Koening has been working for nearly a decade to put together a book of invented words to describe human emotions desperate for a name. If you are interested in browsing on your own, you can find Koening’s website for “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” here: http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com. In the meantime, I will be using this space to feature some of my favorites. Like this one… SCABULOUS - adj. - Proud of a scar on your body. Original link